DepEd kicks off schools cleanup week

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Education on Monday kicked off the nationwide schools cleanup week “Brigada Eskwela” at Bago Bantay Elementary School in Quezon City, gathering some 300 volunteers from the military, corporate sponsors, local government, international donors and members of the community.

Volunteers from the Armed Forces, the Australian Agency for International Development, the United States Embassy, the Quezon City government and several corporate sponsors descended on the school past 7 a.m. Monday, following a convoy of at least 100 vehicles from the DepEd Central Office in Pasig City.

“One important feature of Brigada Eskwela is that we have ordinary people, civil society, NGOs, corporations helping us fulfill our responsibilities to prepare for school opening,” Education Secretary Armin Luistro told volunteers in a short program at the school.

The annual cleanup, which started in 2003, aims to bring together all education stakeholders in preparing some 45,000 public elementary and high schools for class opening, doing minor repairs and repainting.

Some 22 million are expected to attend public schools when classes open on June 6.  DepEd remains burdened with a backlog of some 66,000 classrooms, one year into President Aquino’s deadline for the department to solve all education shortages in two years.